On 29 November 2013, the Committee of the Regions adopted the opinion on Official controls and other official activities to ensure the application of food and feed law, and rules on animal health and welfare. The opinion addressed the Commission's proposal of 6 May 2013 and called for greater attention to be paid to data protection and the principle of subsidiarity.

The rapporteur, Ms. Ewa Panasiuk (PL/ECR), Member of the Lubelskie regional assembly, welcomed the Commission's proposal. As the first Committee of the Regions ECR Group rapporteur, she underlined that the proposed information management system for official controls would need to contain data protection mechanisms.

 Ms Panasiuk noted that the draft legislation needed to better take into account the principle of subsidiarity, arguing that some matters are best left to Member States. The CoR opinion notes that the final decision on mandatory fees for routine controls should be left to the Member States. It also states that, contrary to the Commission proposal, Member States should have the right to adopt separate rules on calculation costs for fees refunds and exemptions for microenterprises.

Ms Panasiuk said "I would like to thank all those who supported the opinion. As the CoR, we adopted important legislative amendments that would make this proposed regulation stronger. I will now work hard to ensure that our views on official controls are taken on board by the EU institutions."